SIGNIFICANT WATER POOLING ACROSS NEW DECK SURFACE We recently had a deck built with TimberTech Azek and it looks great. The product was recommended by our contractor and Big Creek Lumber. It is not cheap, nor was the installation ($40,000+). We had realistic expectations, but now we have problems. PROBLEMS: We have significant water pooling/cupping from a couple rains and some heavy mist. (I've also noticed dried dirt marks left behind when it finally dries, but that's a secondary issue.) CUSTOMER SERVICE: I reached out via phone to a representative from the website. He assured me that some "beading" was natural and over time this would stop. When it didn't stop, I reached out to my contractor because this is not "beading"; this is pooling. I waited a few more weeks and after more pooling from heavy mist and fog, I reached out to my contractor. My conscientious contractor said he has used this material before and has not seen or heard of the issue from any of his clients. He promptly gave me his rep's name and number. The rep said she's had no issues over the past 2 years and she would check—with someone—at the company. She emailed saying that "beading" was normal at first. I sent her deck photos of: Pooling/cupping from rain comparing my neighbor's dry, non-cupping, deck (with another composite-type product). So side by side, at the same time of day, with same weather conditions and sun exposure, my neighbor's deck was dry while mine was significantly pooling with standing water along the entire surface. I also sent a photo of significant pooling/cupping from heavy mist. I have asked the rep for a timeline of when this should stop or resolve itself. I haven't heard back yet and am concerned. A site search brought me to this page with the following: TimberTech's stated superiority over wood decking cupping. Product promotion that helps prevent cupping. Suggestions to dry your deck with a squeegee or mop when there is standing water. Dangers of "standing water," becoming slick (falling danger) and damage to the wood substructure. In summary, the site does not come out and admit pooling/cupping, but it talks about dangers and care of standing water. WHERE TO GO FROM HERE: I'll be calling the rep and asking for a site visit asap, unless anyone else has a suggestion.

If it were me, I would email him a response like, "We will be happy to take delivery of the door so long as insurance agrees to cover the cost." Send it with a read receipt and once he opens the email you should have sufficient evidence of a contingency sale.

It maybe a bit OT but since BER was brought up I will mention that it is water that moves calcium from the soil thru the plant. And normally it is found that irregular watering which is the cause of BER and is esp. a problem in potted plants which tend to dry out sooner and more often. There are many vodoo fixes for BER and it may depend IF the person or store giving the advice has a vested interest in selling you a product. BER can affect many other veggies such as squash, peppers, cukes, pumpkin etc. Or anything which has a blossom. For more on BER you can check forums such as the tomato, veggie, soil, or container forums. For grit for the worms I just use sand since that is what they get out in the real world. A little does go a looong waaaay, just sprinkle some on their food when you feed them.

I wrote a lot a long time ago and have learned a lot since then. We did three projects with two contractors. All were done to high standards. The first contractor, the one I thought I could trust to do cost plus, ended up being a mess. He wasn't dishonest, just incompetent as a GC. His estimates were almost worthless. He didn't really care if his subs ended up spending more because it just got passed on to me. His scheduling was horrendous so there were too many periods of time where nothing was happening. He always had excuses for why things were late/over estimate. I really don't think he knew how much things were going to cost. In the end, he was no less expensive than the other high priced contractors we talked to, though he appeared to be at first. Hard to say if he was more expensive. And like I said, the quality of work was very high: he did have good subs, so quality didn't suffer. (And his custom cabinet maker walks on water: the nicest guy and such great work. We use him for lots of stuff.) So we went with another contractor for the second project (an extensive cottage remodel) and a finished workshop. We did another extensive search. Both of these projects were fixed price and were fairly expensive. The cottage contract ended up having lots of change orders: but that was because the cottage was a mess. We expected a lot of issues and we got them. It really wasn't possible to know what we would find when we started and the contractor made that clear. When we called references on him, one person, maybe a realtor?, said "I can't believe I'm actually recommending a contractor ..." The second and third projects were fixed price but it wasn't just given as a lump sum: he gave us a breakdown for cost for every division (though that doesn't break out labor/materials). And he added profit and overhead at 25%. The biggest thing about him was there was never an excuse. If something was wrong, it was always "we'll fix it." We mostly dealt with a super (which we also really like) but dealt with him directly on stickier issues. So the big thing for us is finding someone we trust. We've been lucky to find that with a landscape contractor, too: same attitude: "we'll fix it." Sometimes there are issues of "has to be this way" but always trying to achieve what we can and always fixing anything that goes awry. We do smaller cost plus jobs with them on an ongoing basis so we've done both fixed and cost plus. Trusting is not just about the way the work gets done: it's also about pricing. We trust that he's charging market rates and not trying to take advantage of us. We ask about costs for projects now but it's more to see if we can afford it than it is to price shop. (With the cabinet maker, we don't even ask ahead any more ... we totally trust him and have no comparable sources anyway.) We feel really fortunate to have found folks that we have such a good relationship with.